Hi, I'm Emily Coltman, M for short, and this is one of my blogs.
I'm Chief Accountant to FreeAgent www.freeagent.com . Views on this blog are mine personally though, and not FreeAgent's.
I have strong views on good customer service, so in this blog I'll chat about anything and everything to do with customer service. I may also go off topic a bit and chat about general business matters. No stuffed shirts allowed.

Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Does accepting sponsorship equal support?

Tris Hussey has written a great article about whether accepting sponsorship means that you condone or support your sponsor's aims.

Sponsorship pops up everywhere. Look at the football here in England - what used to be called "Division One" in my teenage years is now the "Barclays Premier League".

Richard Murphy, who has strong views on business ethics and for whom I have a lot of respect, mentioned recently that the Co-op Bank don't loan to businesses whose trade it doesn't agree with.

My view would be that a sponsorship banner does indicate at least some level of support, even of partnership, and that if you don't like the business, then you shouldn't take their money.

If you're even displaying another business's logo, that's an admission of support - like adding someone's blog to your list of blogs followed.

And talking of displaying logos, Richard has just posted a link to the TaxTicked website. That's one I'm definitely going to check out.